Many trailer hitch devices or other towing assemblies are designed such that the ball portion of the hitch assembly can be easily attached to a vehicle when towing is required and, similarly, can be easily removed from the vehicle when towing is not required. This is generally accomplished through the use of a telescoping arrangement whereby the ball assembly is attached to a tubular bar member which is slidably receivable within a corresponding tubular member which is permanently mounted to the vehicle. The telescoping tubular bar members are held and locked in proper position relative to each other by inserting a pin member through a plurality of aligned openings in the respective telescoping bar members and thereafter engaging a safety clip type member with a groove or other means associated with one end portion of the pin member. Because of the particular size of some of the safety clip type members utilized on the bigger hitch assemblies such as those used on large truck vehicles as well as on many farm implements, inserting and removing such safety clip members onto and off of the pin member or other associated device can become extremely difficult as well as particularly hard on a person's hand if no tool is used to accomplish these tasks. Also, importantly, often times these safety clip members are located in such an awkward position that their location likewise increases the difficulty in attaching and removing the same as well as contributing greatly to additional wear and tear on a person's hand. The present tool device is specifically designed to facilitate easy removal and attachment of these safety clip members without wear and tear on a person's hand.
The present tool member can be used in a multitude of different applications and can be made in a variety of different shapes and sizes so long as push-pull forces can be easily transferred from the tool member to the particular safety clip member involved. For example, the particular type of pin and safety clip arrangement described above is utilized on a wide variety of devices such as lawn tractors and a host of farm tractors and implements where attachments or other portions of a particular mechanical device are designed for quick and easy attachment to and removal from the main device. More particularly, the grass bag assembly as well as the grass chute arrangement associated with many lawn tractors utilize such a pin and safety clip arrangement for both attaching and removing particular structural components associated with these assemblies such as some of the components for holding the bag(s) and/or chute in proper operative position on a particular lawn tractor. These safety clip members are likewise commonly used on a wide variety of different mechanical installations, whether in conjunction with the particular pin and groove construction described above or some other mechanical arrangement to hold various parts of various devices in proper position on such devices.
Various fastener installing and removing tools have been constructed and used in the past for analogous purposes. Typical of such devices are the devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 971,672; 1,357,012; 1,417,868; 2,403,666; 2,796,661; 4,277,872; and 4,942,655. Although all of the prior art devices referenced above disclose a wide variety of different means at one end portion thereof for holding, retaining and/or removing a fastener member such as the use of magnetic means, push-pull articulated arm constructions, parallel blade/slot arrangements, means for engaging a tool bit holder, and a variety of plier-type constructions, these prior art constructions suffer from many deficiencies in that they are structurally overly complex, expensive to manufacture, difficult and cumbersome to handle and use, difficult and cumbersome to repair, and many of such prior art devices include a large number of parts and/or components, which multiplicity of parts again greatly hinders quick and easy use and repair of such devices. Such multiplicity of parts and/or components also greatly increases the risks of tool breakage and/or malfunction. None of the known prior art devices are as simple structurally as the present construction and none disclose the same particular constructional features associated with the present tool such as a recessed cavity for easily and quickly receiving and frictionally holding a clip/fastener member in proper position for installation purposes, and a hook member for engaging and more simply facilitating the removal of a particular clip/fastener member. For these and other reasons, the known prior art constructions have not been entirely satisfactory and have enjoyed limited usefulness.